Joaquin Phoenix Calls Awards Season 'Stupidest Thing'

The 'The Master' actor said he is not going to rejoice in the upcoming awards season because he does not believe in it.

Although he's lauded to take home numerous movie awards this year, Joaquin Phoenix saw them as complete "bulls**t". In a discussion with Elvis Mitchell for Interview magazine, the actor said he does not want to be part of the Oscars or any other award shows which put people in competition.

Phoenix's acting chop in Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" has been applauded as one of the best performances by an actor. He plays Freddie Quell, a former Navy man adrift in a sea of lost souls in postwar America, circa 1950. The film had received the Silver Lion award for directing at this year's Venice Film Festival.

Speaking of his possible inclusion as award contender, Phoenix said, "I think it's bulls**t. I think it's total, utter bulls**t, and I don't want to be a part of it. I don't believe in it. It's a carrot, but it's the worst-tasting carrot I've ever tasted in my whole life. I don't want this carrot. It's totally subjective. Pitting people against each other ...It's the stupidest thing in the whole world."

Phoenix has been nominated twice in the Oscars, once for his role as Commodus in 2000's "Gladiator" and once for his role as Johnny Cash in 2005's "Walk the Line", but he found neither amusing. "It was one of the most uncomfortable periods of my life when 'Walk the Line' was going through all the awards stuff and all that. I never want to have that experience again," he said, adding "I don't know how to explain it - and it's not like I'm in this place where I think I'm just above it - but I just don't ever want to get comfortable with that part of things."